Sit 'n Spin...and more reasons why I'm an idiot

Last night (8/17), I went to
Sit ‘n Spin at the Hudson Theater in Hollywood, where people read personal stories from their
lives…oh my Gawd! I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. And, damn! These people are brave. Not only
were they baring their thoughts, life experiences and moments of humiliation –
but they were at one moment hilarious and the next heart-breaking, all while
standing alone - under a spotlight - without a set, costume, background music
or make-believe character to hide behind.

I found out about Sit ‘n
Spin from Freshyarn.com – a site dense with funny and well written personal
essays. The site’s creator, Hillary
Carlip, wrote “Queen of the Oddballs,” her humorous and interesting tales
of growing up in Los Angeles.

Sit ‘n Spintakes place
every other Thursday, 8 p.m. at the Hudson Theater – 6539 Santa Monica Bl. Hollywood. It’s free, but call for reservations
323-960-5519. Parking is $5.00 across
the street.

But don’t be an idiot like
me and think that you are being thoughtful by turning off your cell phone
before the show, when actually you are turning ON your cell phone so that it
then begins playing the silly ring tone you didn’t pick out yourself, very
loudly during a quiet moment when a performer is on stage trying to concentrate
on their work and not on the thoughtless idiot out in the audience…even if she
really is thoughtful and THOUGHT she did turn off her phone. And, yes, man with the glasses and khaki
pants sitting the next seat over, I knew I was an idiot you didn’t need to burn
me with that “You’re an obnoxious idiot” stare. Anyway, don’t be me.

Speaking of me and what an
idiot I am…

Since I was alone, I took an
end seat which left a space between me and the man with the “you’re an
obnoxious idiot” stare in the glasses – until a nice man came and sat in the
empty seat. The nice man started telling
me how he tried to get his friend in by handing him a flyer (apparently all
seats were taken)…which led into each of us telling our tales of sneaking into
places, only his were far more interesting – not that that stopped me from thinking
mine were too.

With only minutes to go
before the show began, the man (who’s a journalist) was telling me about
his sneak-ins (due to too few press passes) at the Sundance film festival, the Cannes
Film Festival and a fundraiser for President Clinton, where Barbara Streisand
was singing. The journalist snuck by the
secret service and ended up sitting one row and a few seats over from Clinton, only to be approached by some senator that wondered
why he was in his seat.

Then I told him how my
daughter snuck into the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice awards, sat in the front row
and ended up on camera next to the host Ben Stiller.